Verizon

• China cash crunch deepens as PBOC withholds funding (FT), just a week behind ZH
• Platts in hot manipulated crude again: Traders Try to Game Platts Oil-Price Benchmarks (WSJ)
• Kabul Suspends Security Talks With U.S., jeopardizing plans to maintain a U.S. military presence (WSJ)
• Afghan government irked over U.S. talks with Taliban (Reuters)
• BOJ Kuroda: BOJ to Adjust Policy If Japan Econ Changes (MNI)
• Google Considering Private-Equity Alliances (BBG)
• Korean Air Buying 747-8s to End Boeing’s Sales Drought (BBG)
• Syria's Islamists seize control as moderates dither (Reuters)
• SEC considers policy shift on admissions of wrongdoing (FT)
• U.K. Banker Bonuses Face Decade Delays in Industry Overhaul (BBG)

More confusion, or just more lies? You decide.

The rabbit hole just got deeper. A whole lot deeper.

NSA Leaks Help – Rather than Hurt – the United States

Over the weekend we pointed out one of the more disturbing facets of the Snowden espionage affair: the covert, if massive (and very lucrative) symbiosis between private companies, who have explicitly opened up all private client data contrary to privacy disclosures, and a secretly uber-inquisitive government. We asked: "The reality is that while the NSA, which is a public entity through and through, is allowed and expected to do whatever its superiors tell it (i.e., the White House), how does one justify the complete betrayal of their customers by private corporations such as Verizon and AT&T? This may be the most insidious and toxic symbiosis between the public and private sector in the recent past." But while the quid was finally made public (if known by many long ago), the quo wasn't quite clear. It now is - the answer, as as always, is money. And not just any money, but in this specific case taxpayer money paid to either Google or Amazon by none other than the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA for short. Lots of it.

The Dirty Little Secret About Mass Surveillance: It Doesn’t Keep Us Safe

In what is likely the most disappointing, if not unexpected, news of the day, we find that according to a just released Pew Research study, a substantial majority, or 56% of Americans, "say the National Security Agency’s (NSA) program tracking the telephone records of millions of Americans is an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism." Only 41% object to having every phone conversation intercepted, investigated, analyzed, and recorded for posterity. Sorry Edward Snowden: you just threw your life away for nothing. The sheep have been properly and thoroughly conditioned and brainwashed, which is why they continue to get precisely the government they so rightfully deserve.

What most undermines the claims of the Administration and its defenders about this surveillance program is the process itself. First the government listens in on all of our telephone calls without a warrant and then if it finds something it goes to a FISA court and get an illegal approval for what it has already done! This turns the rule of law and due process on its head. The government does not need to know more about what we are doing. We need to know more about what the government is doing. We need to turn the cameras on the police and on the government, not the other way around... We should be thankful for writers like Glenn Greenwald, who broke last week’s story, for taking risks to let us know what the government is doing. There are calls for the persecution of Greenwald and the other whistle-blowers and reporters. They should be defended, as their work defends our freedom.

Confirming that the administration is in very hot water over this week's revelations of widespread domestic and global surveillance, moments ago this Saturday afternoon the head of National Intelligence James Clapper released "Facts on the Collection of Intelligence Pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act" in which he says that PRISM is not an undisclosed collection or data mining program. It is an internal government computer system used to facilitate the government’s... collection of foreign intelligence information." In fact, the program is so legit, it doesn't even work to collect foreign data: "We cannot target even foreign persons overseas without a valid foreign intelligence purpose." Finally, any rumors that Google Glass will be reverting to its original codename "NSA SpyCam" are greatly exaggerated: "Service providers supply information to the Government when they are lawfully required to do so." In short - please believe him. He is from the government, he is telling the truth, and the government is here to help. As for all those Verizon (and other carrier) all too domestic phone intercepts: don't you worry about that.

Top NSA Official: Government Tapping CONTENT, Not Just Metadata … Using Bogus “Secret Interpretation” of Patriot Act

Obama Indistinguishable from Bush ... Or Stasi East Germans

The disclosures involving this (and the prior) administration's Big Brother surveillance state, which would make Nixon blush with envy are now coming fast and furious (one wonders - why now: even that bastion of liberalism the NY Times, has turned against Obama). Although while the Guardian's overnight news that Verizon (and most certainly AT&T as well among others) was cooperating with the NSA on spying on US citizens, so far at least the internet seemed, if only to the great unwashed masses, immune. That is no longer the case following news from the WaPo exposing PRISM, a highly classified program, which has not been disclosed publicly before. "Its establishment in 2007 and six years of exponential growth took place beneath the surface of a roiling debate over the boundaries of surveillance and privacy." What PRISM does is to allow the NSA and the FBI to tap directly "into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time."

Yes, Government Spooks May Be Listening

Two weeks ago, with its current account getting crushed by relentless gold imports, India's finance minister Chidambaram literally begged the people to stop buying gold. Judging by the popular response, the ongoing physical shortage, and last night's increase in Indian gold import duties from 6% to 8%, appealing to people's feeling when it comes to the choice of fiat vs physical, has failed miserably. So the FinMin Chidambaram has decided to escalate.  Per Reuters: "The Reserve Bank of India has advised banks against selling gold coins to retail customers, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said on Thursday, a day after he raised gold import duty to try to ease pressure on India's bloated current account deficit." Well, if there ever was one sure way to send demand for any product through the roof (guns, ammo, etc), it is for the government to prohibit its outright sale. What follows next, almost without fail, is a panicked, chaotic buying scramble.